Machine for folding paper



2 Sheets-Sheet 1. J. NORTH.

Machine for Folding Paper.

Patented Apr. 15, 1856.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2. 1. NORTH Machine for Folding Paper.

Patented Apr. 15, 1856.

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JOHN NORTH, OF MIDDLETOIVN, CONNECTICUT.

MACHINE FOR FOLDING PAPER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 14,697, dated April 15, 1856. A

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN NORTH, of Middletown, in the county of Middlesex and State of Connecticut, have invented certain Im provements in Machines for Folding Paper, and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the principle or character which distinguishes them from all other things before known,and of the usual manner of making, modifying, and using the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, of which.

V Figure 1 is a plan of the machine. Fig. 2 is a side elevation. Fig. 3 is an end view. Fig. 4. is a detached view showing in perspective the nipper and folding-knife and parts connected therewith. Fig. 5 is an enlarged View showing the mode of checking and adjusting the motion of folding-nipper. Fig. 6 is a detached view of the trip-dog and part of a finger-bar. Fig. 7 is a detached view of the cutting apparatus. Fig. 8 is a detached View of the cam which gives the motion to the nippers. Fig. 9 is a section of one pair of the concentric rock-shaft. Fig. 10 is a section of the fingers and finger-bar.

My invention consists of certain improvements in machines for folding paper, hereinafter described, whereby I am enabled to fold accurately and with great neatness, economy, and rapidity.

In paper-folding machines hitherto essayed it has been found impracticable to fold accurately-that is, to fold every, sheet alikeand this defect has entirely prevented the use of such machines to any profitable account.

- Accordingto the mode set forth in the patent granted to Ed. M. Smith, November 27, 184:9, the folding was effected by means of a moving straight-edge or knife pressing the paper. between a pair of rollers, and in practice it is found from slight differences of friction on different parts of the sheet from resistance of 7 the air and various slight disturbing causes that the fold cannot always be accurately made upon such principle of operation.

According to the mode of operation set forth in the patent granted to I. K. Snow,0ctober 15, 18-50, the folding was effected upon a principle of operation similar to the last mentioned, though differing somewhat hide tail. The use, however, of a moving knife or straight-edge to lift or push the paper between gripping, pressing, folding, or carrying surfaces must be attended with inaccuracy in the folding for reasons already stated,

Another objection to the above modes,and a fatal one for the operation of book-folding, is the soiling of the paper. The -carrying or folding surfaces become in time covered with ink and soil the sheet more or less every time in passing.

The object of my invention is to remedy these defects and otherwise to improve the operation of book-folding. Instead of a moving knife or straight-edge, I use a stationary knife, by which the folding is in part effected. Instead of moving the sheet from the table'in the act of folding, the sheet remains upon the table while the fold is made. Instead of p ushing or carrying the folded sheet between plates or rollers, I carry it by means'of nip pers which seize the sheet by the middle of the middle margin, as hereinafter set forth.

The frame-work of my machine, as seen at C6 a in Figs 1 and 2,' is somewhat similar in appearance to the framework of a double printing-press.

As the machine is double in its operation, it will be necessary only to describe one half, similar letters referring to similar parts in the two halves.

b is the table or fly-board, upon which the sheets are laid in order to be introduced to the folding apparatus. This board has register-pins c c, which are operated in the usual manner adopted in printing-presses. The sheet is seizedon its edge by the fingers cl d, attached to the reciprocating carriage, and withdrawn from the fiy board and carried by the fingers under the folding=nippers. .The fingers d d are made to open and close at the proper times by mechanism commonly employed in printing-presses to effect the same operation, which need not be described. The fingers are raised and dropped at the time of seizing the sheet by a peculiar contrivance described as follows: Attached to the fingerbar, Fig. 6, near its end, is a projecting piece 6, having near its end a wrist-pin or bolt On the frame, near the edge of the fly-board, is a tripdog g, turning upon a pivot h. This dog is provided with a slot 1', into which the wrist-pin enters as the carriage advances, and

from the rotation of the dog on ,its pivot it will be seen that the fingers must rise up until the dog is vertical and then descend as the dog moves on. WVhen the finger-bar moves away from the fiy-board, the wrist-pin carries the dog back to its place for the reception of the pin on its return. Attached to and near the end of the carriage is the folding'edge or knife 70, as seen in Fig. 1, under the foldingboard, part of which is represented as broken out to show the knife. The knife is fixed to the frame, the edge rising slightly above its level. The folding-nipper m, Figs. 2, 4, and 5, has a pair of grasping edges or jaws, which jaws may be opened and closed ways, the mode represented being merely to open the jaws by pressing over the folding edge or knife and keeping them closed by the spring of the metal of which they are made. The edge of the knife is slightly raised above the level of the frame on which the paper is carried, so that the paper rests at that part on the edge of the knife. \Vhen by the movement of the carriage the knife is brought immediately under the folding-nipper m, the carriage stops and the middle margin of the sheet is over the edge of the knife. Bymechanism shortly to be described the nipper is brought down upon the knife, the jaws of the nipper pressingthe paper over its edge and making the fold. hen the nipper moves away from the knife, it carries the folded sheet with it into a position to be folded a second time by the knife 7a and nipper m. vIn order to keep the nipper from risingbeyond the required position and to determine or gage this position, I use a check-piecep, which is adjustable on the graduated stem 8 and a stoppiece t on the nipper m. The check-pin slides toward and from the nipper, being grooved 0r dovetailed into the piece a, which is fixed to the stem 8. The spring 10 keeps the checkpiece against the nipper m. The nipper m is moved by mechanism, shortly to be described, and as it comes up to the sheet, which is held in place by the nipper m, it folds it over the knife 7t. At the time the nipper 77?, comes up to make the fold it opens the nipper in in the following manner: Aprojecting piece 00 on this nipper strikes the pin a, which is attached to one jaw of nipper m, and passes through an opening in the other jaw, so as to open the jaws and relieve the sheet from the grasp of nipper m. The nipper mis cut out in the center of the folding edges to the extent of the width of the 'bite or grasp of the nipper upon the sheet, so as to allow the sec- 0nd. nipper m to act upon the whole extent of the sheet. \Vhile in the act of folding the nipper m pushes the check-piece p from above the stop if and allows the nipper m to be carried up till the stop if strikes the fixed piece a, and the nipper m is entirely clear from the sheet. The check-piece bears against the stop-piece untilthe nipper m is carried down again to make another fold. The nipper 'rn having completed the second fold, carin various ries the sheet back, to be subjected to a third folding bymipper m and knife 70 The drawings represent a machine for folding octavo volumes.

According to the mode of printing, the halves of the sheet must be folded in opposite directions, and the machine is so arranged thatone half is folded up and the other half down, the part for folding from below being similar in construction and operation to thatalreadydescribed. The sheet is laid on the fly-board, and as it is taken 7 along by the fingers upon the carriage it is cut in halves by the rolling cutter 0' upon the straight-edge or .bed d, and while one half is carried through and folded, as already described, the other goes through a similar course, except that it passes under aknife attached to the fixed block 6 and is folded by a nipper which rises up from below.

In the machine represented there are two fly-boards and there are two sets of fingers d c 2 upon the reciprocating carriage, and also [upon that side of the carriage where the papar is-first carried over the knife I have two knives attached to the carriage, these'knives 7c it coming alternately under the nipper m. A single knife might be placed under the carriage and raised up and carried down at proper times, but the machinery required to effect this would be far more expensive than the two knives moving with the carriage, and otherwise objectionable. When the sheet passes under the knife, one knife fixed to the frame-work of the machine will answer.

To cut the sheets on both sides of the ma chine, I have two rolling cutters c c at the extremities of a rocking bar f, which is piv oted to the frame. One end of this bar is in contact with a bifurcated spring catch or kind of escapement g, and slips over (above and below) a projection in the center of this catch, as it is shown in Fig. 7, by the following means: The extremities of the bed on which the cut is made are provided with inclined planes, one of which is shown at h, Fig. '7, the other being at the opposite part of the carriage. As the cuttingrollers as cend these inclined planes, they are alternately raised and depressed and the end of the rocking bar is forced to pass over the pro jection of the escapement, so that it is above the projection when that end of the bar is up and below when .it is down. The spiral spring n holds the bar in either of its positions with suflic-ient force to keep the cutters to their work.

The various motions. given to all the fold ing-nippers are derived from a single cam A, operating upon the lower ends of the two T- The op-' erating, checking, and opening the n1pper leversT T. The arms of lever T are fur nished with sector-gears B B, which take into arms G G, connected with the rockshafts D D. These rock-shafts are inclosed in and pass through hollow rock-shafts E E, with which they are concentric. The arms of the lever T are also furnished with sector- M gears B B similar to gears B B, and these take into arms Gr G connected with the hollow rock-shafts E E. The first folding-nipper m gets its motion from rock-shaft D, through the medium of the vibrating arm 15, connecting-link G, and lever H, to which this nipper is attached. The second foldingnipper m gets its motion from the hollow rock-shaft E, through the medium of the vibrating arln'F, connecting link G, sector bevel-gear H, and lever H per m gets its motion from the rock-shaft D, through the medium of arm F, connectinglink G and lever H The nippers below the carriage get their motion from rock shafts E D by means similar to those just described for nippers m m m The carriage is moved back and forth by the crank K upon the main drivingshaft L, which shaft is inclosed within the hollow shaft T through the medium of the connecting-mod M, lever N, and connecting-link P. As the carriage must be stopped while the sheet is being folded upon it, the stop is caused by the slot R in the connecting-rod M, in which plays the pin connecting the rod with the lever, so that the crank moves through nearly a quarter-revolution while the slot is passing over the pin and before it acts upon the lever N. The cam A makes two revolutions to one of the The third nipcrank K, and this is effected as follows: The small gear R on the driving-shaft T takes into the larger gear R on the cam-shaft T and the small gear R on the cam-shaft takes into the larger gear R on the hollow shaft T inclosing the driving-shaft L. The crank is connected with this hollow shaft, and by the suitable proportioninent of the gearing the requisite relative motions aregiven to cam and rock shafts.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. Folding the paper by, means of a sta tionary straight-edge or knife and foldingnippers, substantially as herein set forth.

2. The manner of relieving the sheet from the nipper, as set forth.

3. The adjustable cheek and the mode of releasing. its hold by the advance of the nippers, as set forth.

4E. The rotating trip-dog for raising and depressing the fingers, as set forth.

5. Attaching the knives to the reciprocating carriage, as set forth.

6. Operating the reciprocating carriage by means of the crank K, the slotted connectingrod M, the lever N, and the link P, whereby I attain accuracy and easeof movement.

7. The cutting-rollers hung on a bar vibrated and checked, as herein set forth.

8. The arrangement of the T-levers with the double concentric rockshafts for operating the nippers by one cam, as herein set forth.

JOHN NORTH.

WVitnesses:

R. TOLMIE CAMPBELL, CHAS. G. PAGE. 

